would this work? install mint 7 with ext 4 file format then after it updates run mint backup and load my backup image from my system when i was on ext3? does mint backup , backup files or does it do a backup that if i restore from it it will restore the ext3 filesystem? thanks

anyone? i used mint backup would formatting to ext4 installing mint 7 then using my mint backup bring back all my apps and settings? if it will how do i format to ext4, then run installer and tell installer not to format to ext3 because i dont think theres a option to install as ext4 in the mint installer is there??...

The kernel development team adopted the Ext4 code in version 2.6.19 to give it the opportunity to come to maturity in the kernel. Ext4 was marked as experimental in versions up to and including 2.6.27, but since Linux 2.6.28 the new file system is now considered stable. Not that this rules out the odd bug or other unpleasant surprise. The latest Ubuntu 9.04 can already be installed on Ext4 and the forthcoming Fedora 11 release will use Ext4 as its default file system.

please don't make multiple threads, as it splits effort. For anyone else, the alternative thread has some answers too: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=30443

As this thread seems to be slightly different, I'll answer here too: I did exactly this. My data was on an ext3 partition, which I shrunk to size, created a new ext4 partition, then copied all the files over from the ext3 to the new ext4. It worked fine, but took ages. It's technically possible to do this with system files too, but I recommend taking a backup of the list of installed packages with dpkg --getselections and doing a fresh install (selecting ext4 as the format), then applying them again afterwards. You're much less likely to run into problems this way.

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